Quotes & Sayings About Prologues

The prologues are over. It is a question, now,
Of final belief. So, say that final belief
Must be in a fiction. It is time to choose. — Wallace Stevens

Most agents hate prologues. Just make the first chapter relevant and well written. — Andrea Brown

I'm a traditionalist. — Morrissey

I don't fear death so much as I fear its prologues: loneliness, decrepitude, pain, debilitation, depression, senility. After a few years of those, I imagine death presents like a holiday at the beach. — Mary Roach

Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing
1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said" ... he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. — Elmore Leonard

In 'Labor Day Hurricane, 1935,' Douglas Trevor vividly recreates a historical event. While that is the only story in A THIN TEAR IN THE FABRIC OF SPACE in the historical past, many of the other stories juxtapose fact-both historical and scientific-with narration to an engaging effect, one that distinguishes the voice of this new writer. — Stuart Dybek

Every child is born not only with a stomach that has to be catered to, it is also endowed with two hands which can work and produce the food for the stomach. The hands have to be given the strength and skill; they have to learn the lesson of self-reliance. They should never be lazy or slothful. Then, there can be no deficiency in food and no problem of underfeeding. — Sathya Sai Baba

Some people try to get very philosophical and cerebral about what they're trying to say with jazz. You don't need any prologues, you just play. — Oscar Peterson

I started writing my own plays, and I would sell out, but after everything was said and done, I'd break even. That's being successful. — Steven Michael Quezada

Preparations are good in life, prologues ruinous. — Margaret Fuller

While ignorance might be bliss, apathy can be deadly. — Todd Stocker

Never make negative comments or spread rumors about anyone. It depreciates their reputation and yours. — Brian Koslow

I never heard 'I love you' as a child. I never felt pretty or cared for. — Karrine Steffans

Avoid Prologues. They can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword. — Elmore Leonard

My mother had been a solitary chef. It was her recreation and her escape. — Janet Fitch

I wrestled futilely, then relaxed as a vine wrapped three times around my throat and squeezed.
Right," I choked out, and shut my eyes. "I'll wait here, then. — Rachel Caine

I never make studies from nature. They would get in the way. I make use of my mind. — Bridget Riley

I don't know what that weid fantasy is that makes people go, "Oh, you must have had a great childhood." — Ben Stiller

I read everything in that dusty little library. I read the prologues and the epilogues until I could tell you how many times Stephen King thanked his wife, Tabitha. I could tell you how the Columbia Indians made their long-houses, or how to make a solar toilet, or how to dry bear meat in the sun. I could tell you all of this if I could talk, but instead the words stayed inside of me and marveled. This I could accept, or so I told myself for a long time. Because the words were there, and they carried me to another place. — Rene Denfeld

Prices of semicolons, plot devices, prologues and inciting incidents continued to fall yesterday, lopping twenty points off the TomJones Index. — Jasper Fforde

From time to time I try to imagine this world of which he spoke
a culture in whose mythology words might be that precious, in which words were conceived as vessels for communications from the heart; a society in which words are holy, and the challenge of life is based upon the quest for gentle words, holy words, gentle truths, holy truths.
I try to imagine for myself a world in which the words one gives one's children are the shell into which they shall grow, so one chooses one's words carefully, like precious gifts, like magnificent gifts, like magnificent inheritances, for they convey an excess of what we have imagined, they bear gifts beyond imagination, they reveal and revisit the wealth of history.
How carefully, how slowly, and how lovingly we might step into our expectations of each other in such a world. — Patricia J. Williams